Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1331 Meritorious Service
Compared with the Cao brothers and sisters who stayed in the north due to various coincidences, the other person who was deliberately exiled to the frontier was now full of anger. He smelled the smell of burning horse manure and swallowed the roasted lamb leg permeated with the smell of horse manure with difficulty.

To be fair, this lamb leg was very fresh, and was considered a delicacy in the daily diet of the northern border residents. But after all, Sun Quan was a very picky eater in the Wu Kingdom, and to him, this lamb leg sprinkled with a little coarse salt seemed a bit crude.

The place where he is now is a newly built border town at the northernmost part of the Hetao Plain. It was built by Gao Gan and his soldiers before Yuan Xi left Bingzhou. So the difference is that in this not-so-big city, almost all the houses are underground.

In the center of the house is a stove with a long chimney. Dry dung is burning below the stove, and raw meat, milk tea and other foods are above it. The flue is made of burned mud and goes around the house to keep as much heat as possible inside the house.

Fuel is precious in the north, and most of the time, cooking is done by burning dried horse and cow dung, so the craftsmen under Yuan Xi designed such a house.

Sun Quan's most capable right-hand men, Yan Jun and Sun Shao, were turning the lamb legs on the fire while warming their hands on the stove.

The three of them were shivering with cold. They wore two layers of old sheepskin coats and the clothes they brought from Jiangdong underneath, but they still couldn't resist the invasion of severe cold. For them who were used to the climate of Jiangdong, this north was really too cold!

Sun Quan bit the lamb leg so hard that his teeth were sore, but he still couldn't bite off the bloody fascia on the lamb leg. He suddenly became furious and smashed the lamb leg into the stove. "Damn it, what kind of life is this!"

"A few years ago, the Wu Kingdom had hundreds of thousands of troops and had the upper hand. How did it become like that and fall to this point?"

Sun Shao and Yan Jun's faces froze, and they thought to themselves, doesn't the king know best what has happened in the past few years?
Yan Jun reached out his hand and picked up the lamb leg that Sun Quan had thrown on the horse manure. He turned it over the fire for a few circles, then put it to his mouth without changing his expression. He bit off the little fascia left on the lamb leg and began to chew it in his mouth.

Sun Quan felt sick after watching it, "Man Cai, you're eating something that's covered in feces?"

Yan Jun said leisurely: "Lord Sun, haven't I eaten enough shit in the past few years?"

Sun Quan was stunned, and before he could react, he heard Yan Jun say, "Lord Sun should have accepted the reality a long time ago. It's not shameful to lose to the King of Jin. Didn't Cao Cao beat him?"

"Isn't it because Your Majesty refused to bow to the King of Jin and insisted on attacking Liu Bei at the same time that Jiangdong has fallen to this point?"

Sun Quan angrily asked: "Why, do you think I was wrong?"

"I am also a man who can be crowned emperor. Why should I bow to him?"

Yan Jun said, "So we can only stay here and eat horse manure."

"Have you ever thought that you might stay here forever?"

Sun Quan was even angrier. "Why? Are we going to listen to Xiong Hu and help him solve the problem of the Hu people at the border?"

"If he can't do anything, what can I do?"

"Besides, this is not Jiangdong, this is the North. We have no soldiers, only hundreds of slaves we brought with us. Is it crazy to think we can deal with the Hu people?"

Yan Jun said leisurely: "Then we can only live here for the rest of our lives."

"Lord Sun should know that Jin is now the only powerful country, and it was actually crowned emperor by abdication. If it unifies the world in the future, the possibility of us returning will be even lower."

Sun Shao suddenly said, "It's not that there is no solution."

"But it requires taking a huge risk, and even if you risk your life, you may not be able to succeed?"

After hearing this, Sun Quan couldn't help but reveal anticipation on his face. It was because the climate in the north was too harsh and he didn't want to stay there any longer!
Thinking of this, he said in a deep voice: "What brilliant idea does Changxu have? Tell us quickly."

Sun Shao replied: "If you want to regain your freedom, you must make contributions."

"Now in Bingzhou, the King of Jin is worried about two things."

"First, we should conquer Liangzhou in the west. The high officials there are deploying troops, and we can't interfere."

"The second is the Xianbei outside the Great Wall. To our north are Budugen of the Western Xianbei and Kebineng of the Central Xianbei. Their original territories met at the mountain pass in the north."

"But in recent years, there have been occasional conflicts between the two sides, and the border has also moved back and forth. Last year, Kebi sent more than 100,000 people to enter the pass, but was defeated by the Jin army. Budugen took the opportunity to push the border back hundreds of miles."

"But the strength of the Western Xianbei is not as good as that of the Central Xianbei. Before we arrived this year, Kobe had already eliminated the impact of the defeat and was eroding Budugen's territory."

"Both Kobinen and Budugen want to unify the Xianbei, but Budugen is not as strong or as smart as Kobinen, so he is naturally unwilling to accept this, so he now relies on the Jin State and wants to destroy Kobinen."

"We can now take advantage of this contradictory situation and find a way to atone for our sins. We can make meritorious deeds and leave here as soon as possible."

He could hardly stand this place anymore. The severe cold in the north was a torture to the people in the south. If Sun Shao had not been pressured to save face, he might have run away secretly long ago.

Yan Jun said at this time: "Changxu is thinking too simply. Budugen has an army of more than 100,000, but he still can't defeat Kobinen. We only have a few hundred people including all the families. What can we do?"

Sun Shao said calmly: "Of course there is, just follow the story of Zhang Fei."

Sun Quan and Yan Jun understood immediately, and Sun Quan's face flushed slightly. "You mean, let's pretend to surrender, gain Kirby's trust, and then find an opportunity to assassinate him?" Sun Shao said, "This is the only way I can think of."

"I even suspect that this is why Xionghu exiled Sun Hou here. He was unwilling to do it himself, so he used the king to kill with a borrowed knife."

After hearing this, Sun Quan snorted coldly and said, "What a hypocritical person!"

When Yuan Xi sent Sun Quan here for exile, he only told Sun Quan that he could regain his freedom if he performed great merits, but he did not tell Sun Quan what he needed to do, so Sun Quan could only guess but could not figure it out.

As soon as Sun Shao said that just now, Sun Quan realized that this guy was attracted by his ability to deceive people and wanted to kill Kobe with despicable means.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but despise Yuan Xi even more. "You said it well, but in the end you just wanted to use the same method as me!"

Yan Jun said, "Prince Jin is not really bound by moral principles. He doesn't hesitate to resort to underhand tactics if he can save lives. This was also the case during the Huaicheng Rebellion."

"But the difficulty of Nagao's plan lies in how to gain Kobinen's trust."

"As far as I know, he has experienced assassination attempts over the years. Even if we pretend to surrender, he may still be on guard against us. This man is much smarter than Zhang Fei."

Sun Shao said, "How about some kind of token of surrender?"

"For example, sending the head of an important person."

Yan Jun listened to Sun Shao's increasingly outrageous remarks and quickly objected, "It's not appropriate. After all, our lives are in the hands of the Jin State. If we go too far, it will be difficult to explain ourselves later."

"In fact, it doesn't have to be so complicated. We just need to secretly send someone to meet Kobinen, give him money and goods, and accuse Xionghu of treating Sun Hou badly. Kobinen will naturally believe it."

"Cobinen should have known about Lord Sun's fate a long time ago. He will definitely want to use Lord Sun to attack the interior of the country. When the time comes, we can take advantage of his mentality and have our assassins assassinate him, and naturally the mission will be accomplished."

Sun Quan was still worried. "The last time Zhu Ran was able to assassinate Zhang Fei, it was because I had planted a nail around Zhang Fei in advance. Now that Kobe has no one of ours around him, how can he succeed?"

Sun Shao said, "I think Lord Sun is overthinking it. In fact, as long as we send a capable person to the mission and gain Kirby's trust, and then stay by his side, there will definitely be plenty of opportunities for assassination."

"That being said, who would be willing to do such a thing?"

Yan Jun said decisively: "I'll go."

Sun Quan and Sun Shao were both shocked. Sun Shao thought that it was no wonder that Yan Jun spoke so rudely just now, it turned out that he was already prepared to die!

Sun Quan couldn't help but said in a bitter voice: "For this kind of thing, it's better not to trouble Changxu to do it himself, right?"

Yan Jun said: "Others are not worthy of Kobe's trust."

"Besides, I was responsible for the destruction of Wu. If I can accomplish my mission now, I will have given an explanation to Lord Sun."

"As for what happens next, it's up to you, Your Majesty."

Sun Quan was in a complicated mood and couldn't help asking, "Why did Wen Xu do this?"

Yan Jun replied, "I am from Xuzhou. I have no way to repay the king's kindness. Back then, several of us swore to die for the king. Zhu Huan was captured, Zhu Ran died in battle, and now only Mancai and I are left."

"We are unable to complete Lord Sun's great cause of unifying the world. We are really failing Lord Sun's trust and kindness. Now that the situation is like this, we should not live in the north, but make a grand battle to show the King of Jin that not all of us in Xuzhou are cowards."

Sun Quan was deeply moved when he heard this. He almost opened his mouth to speak, but in the end he closed his eyes in pain and sighed to the sky, "I am so sorry for you."

"So many people have died because of my selfish desires. It's all my fault."

"I will do this myself this time."

Sun Shaoyanjun was shocked and said, "Absolutely not. How can we let Lord Sun do this?"

Sun Quan smiled bitterly, stood up, and slowly drew the long sword from his waist. "It is only today that I realize the absurdity of what I did before."

"The fierce tiger always leads the troops in every battle, but after I was defeated in the battle myself, I no longer have the courage to fight him. I would rather fight Liu Bei than face him directly. How can I not be defeated?"

"Now I have no chance of defeating him, but I still have something I can do."

"I was once the ruler of the Great Wu Kingdom. If I were to die in this desolate place until the end of my life, I would rather choose another way to die!"

Sun Shaoyanjun was so excited when he heard this that he stood up and said, "I am willing to follow you till death!"

(End of this chapter)